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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Weeeeeeeee! Good Morning. I am so excited...

I can't wait to work with them and had to show them off right away!
These are 24K Gold Vermeil rimmed Solar Quartz:

I am so drooling over these lovlies. I bought the entire strand!

I also got some of the new 24K Gold laminated rock quartz I have been seeing around a bit on Etsy:

This is a genuine rock quartz brio that has 24K gold laminated in the center of it.

I have found out exactly HOW THESE ARE MADE. We have started seeing some of these and designers (like me) are very interested in them.

They start with rock quartz and cut the gem in half with a laser. The gold is added in a thin laminate layer and the two halves are fused back together. You do have a seam and if you enlarge the pix you will see it. The laminate in the middle causes a milky look to the gem. Some sellers are calling this "opalite" which is a manmade quartz but actually it's the laminate that causes the milky quality.. some also have very fine bubbles also caused from the laminate, you can for sure tell they are rock quartz.. they are cold in your hand as all rock quartz is.. it's the way to tell it from lab grown quartz.